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Human Environmental Sciences Extension

Note to Researcher: The information about Human Environmental Sciences Extension found on this page was originally compiled in 1999. More current information about the College of Human Environmental Sciences and its departments can be found at the following URL:

History

Extension programs in home economics have been an integral part of the University of Missouri Cooperative Extension effort since its official beginning with the passage of the Smith-Lever Act in 1914, which required land-grant universities to aid in diffusing to the general public useful and practical information on subjects relating to agriculture and home economics. By June of 1914, the Agricultural Extension Service was organized in the College of Agriculture, under which Home Economics was a department. In 1915, the first HE extension specialist was hired, and mobile schools of home economics, consisting of demonstrations and lectures conducted over a period of several days, were began to be in various areas of the state. Home demonstration agents and extension workers were hired to teach courses in areas such as foods, fabrics, home furnishings, home education and care of the sick, and boys and girls club work.

The Depression years of the 1930s brought steady growth in home economics extension clubs in rural Missouri and increased interest in subjects such as the handling of family finances, farm and home accounts, and food budgeting and plans. By 1938 there were 38,371 women enrolled in these clubs and 61 state home demonstration agents. Missouri's peak enrollment in home economics extension clubs was in 1955 with membership of 45,000. By the 1960s, the home economics extension programs began to shift from an emphasis in rural areas to working more in urban and suburban areas to include women working outside the home, business and professional people, and low-income families.

When the Department of Home Economics became a school in 1960 and a college in 1973, state extension specialists became part of the home economics faculty and were housed within its academic departments while county extension home economists became specialized in one of the college's academic areas. Lincoln University, Missouri's land-grant university established in 1890, began an extension service program in 1971 which works in cooperation with UMC's home economics extension program.

During the 1980s, Home Economics Extension (changed to HES Extension when the College changed its name in 1988) began to focus more on issue-based programming to address issues such as balancing work and family, establishing a home-based business, preventing substance abuse, caring for the elderly, and providing adequate child care. Because the number of extension agents declined during this time, new delivery systems such as volunteers, home study courses, computer programs, and videotapes began to be increasingly utilized.

Today, HES Extension offers programs in areas such as family resource management and poverty; improving habitability of individual's natural and built environment; improvement of nutritional well-being; child care, family relationships, parenting and youth issues; and the improving the competitive position of Missouri textile businesses.

Sources: University General Catalogs (C:0/51/1/); School of Home Economics Catalogs and Bulletins (C:5/12/1); HES Dean's Office - M. Mangel HE History Records (C:5/1/NP)

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